What material are most antique statues made from?

Carved wood is the largest single strand, and stone, marble, bronze, brass, spelter, plaster and terracotta all appear. Bronze and marble are smaller presences than you might expect, each turning up in only a handful of titles. The wider list is broader still. Horn, bone, whale vertebrae, seashell, bamboo, papier mâché, leather, ivory, alabaster, granite, onyx and cloisonné all come up across the samples.

How many statues come up for sale each year?

Around twenty-nine reach the market on Sellingantiques in a year, and 117 different dealers have listed one. That means almost every dealer who handles them handles only one or two. It's a category that arrives in ones and twos rather than from specialists with stock.

Which subject appears most often?

Lions. Between the singular and plural they run to twenty-two titles, more than any other subject in the category, and they appear in stone, marble, pewter, bronze, soapstone and jade. Horses and dogs follow, with elephants, eagles, owls, pigs, tigers and ducks scattered across the samples.

Are antique statues usually sold in pairs?

Pairs are a defining feature rather than a variation. Nearly a fifth of titles say "pair", and lions and figures account for many of them. Larger sets appear too: four seasons, four cherubs with instruments, four root carvings, five Oceanic stone statues, and one lot of nine Chinese wood carvings.

Do garden statues form a big part of the category?

Roughly a fifth of it. Stone and composition stone garden and architectural pieces include lions, cherubs, nudes, busts on plinths, bird baths, a staddle stone and limestone pinnacles. Moulded composition and cast stone are products of the industrial period, when moulding turned a statue into an ordinary purchase rather than a commission.

Where do the Asian and tribal carvings come from?

Chinese pieces lead by a distance, carrying about one title in eleven, with Buddha figures a recurring note among them. Japanese okimono, Tibetan, Balinese, Indian and Khmer carvings appear as well. Some origins show up only once each: Inuit and Native American, Maori and Oceanic, Yoruba, Burmese and Filipino.

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Antique Statues

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Free-standing figural sculpture for houses, gardens, churches and shopfronts, carved or cast in whatever material was to hand, from oak and limestone to spelter, bone and shell.